Longing for the bygone days of the Food Network before its obsession with culinary combat?

You might find passion for cookery restored on Gusto TV, a food and lifestyle specialty channel which has acquired some of the highest-rated TV food shows from around the world, and it’s accruing foodie cred.

In B.C., it was launched last December on Telus Satellite (channel 619) and in February, on Telus Optik (channel 315) and more providers will be coming on board.

Not to be missed is the Australian show My Kitchen Rules which premiered on Gusto TV last month. It was a top-rated TV show in Australia with a cult following and it beat out Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey in ratings. And well, yes, it involves competition but it also involves serious cooking as 12 home chef teams travel across the country transforming ordinary homes into one-night-stand restaurants.

In Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong, the Australian celebrity chef takes viewers on a culinary trip along the Mekong through China, Burma and Thailand.

In Martha Stewart Bakes and Martha Stewart Cooking School, the kitchen diva makes a comeback with some culinary basics; Donna Hay, of the beautiful cookbooks, shot against pristine white, shows how to cook simple, elegant cooking; English wordsmith Nigel Slater, a food journalist, has three shows.

Lo and behold, Julia Child is reincarnated in original black and white as The French Chef. She’s probably best PVR’ed as the show is on a 3 a.m. time slot.

Annabel Langbein gives us a taste of “free range” New Zealand with recipes for a starter, main and dessert with each episode. For summer barbecues, there are several shows to inspire at the grill — Ask The Butcher, The Secret Meat Business and Licence To Grill.

On Rick Stein Mediterranean, the English chef takes viewers around the Mediterranean coastline and islands cooking up dishes like pulenda, (a polenta made with chestnut flour) and figatellu, a Corsican sausage of offal and cheek, grilled over chestnut wood.

Gusto TV’s slogan is “Food all night, fun all day.” Daytime program runs a wider lifestyles gamut while after 6 p.m., it’s all food, all night.

“We’ve acquired the top-rated shows in the market,” says Gusto TV publicist Heather Ward. “(Founder) Chris Knight’s passion was to launch the network. We’ll be announcing the fall lineup shortly and going into production for original Canadian shows in fall. There’ll be a whole array of best shows from around the world.” And the network is currently casting for new shows, she says.

Gusto TV is based in Ottawa and founded by industry veteran Chris Knight, who created awarding winning food shows like Cook Like a Chef, License to Grill, Edible Roadshow and This Food That Wine, seen in more than 170 countries.

“We look forward to giving Canadians a fresh new choice in television with food as the central character,” says Knight, the president and CEO.

For a complete list of shows, recipes and more information, go to gustotv.com.